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The improbable architect of Central African Republic’s future

Moustapha Saboun, who spent 25 years raising a family in Canada, is now in unlikely position of building a political party from wreckage of conflict.

Moustapha Saboun, a longtime resident of Sherbrooke, Que., was recently appointed secretary general of the Seleka's political wing. The Seleka, a heavily armed Muslim rebel coalition, has been locked in a vicious conflict with the anti-balaka Christian militia in the Central African Republic. (Ren? Marquis / for the Toronto Star)

SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC—Moustapha Saboun could not get elected as a city councillor and had even worse luck when he ran to become mayor of this town in eastern Quebec in 2009.

But the African immigrant, who spent a quarter century raising three children and building a life in Canada, is now in the unlikely position of building a political party from the wreckage of a deadly conflict in the Central African Republic ― one that has pitted a largely Christian militia, known as the anti-balaka, against the Seleka, a heavily armed Muslim rebel coalition.

The United Nations has warned that genocide looms in CAR, and with 500,000 people having fled their homes, at least half of the country’s 4.6 million people are in need of humanitarian aid.

The country is scarred, traumatized by crimes committed during the last year that have turned neighbours against each other: killing and mutilating, lynching, raping, looting. Many children and women are among the dead.

On Wednesday, an attack that killed dozens was blamed on Muslim fighters, The Associated Press reports. Muslim rebels stormed a Catholic church compound in Bangui, killing at least 30 people in a hail of gunfire and grenades, according to witnesses.

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Stability will only come with a reconciliation that brings leaders from the Seleka and anti-balaka together to form a government.

Much of that will rest with Saboun, who was appointed secretary general of the Seleka’s political wing earlier this month.

“The fight we’re in right now is to stop the killing,” Saboun told the Toronto Star in an interview during a brief return to see his family in Sherbrooke.

“We have to do that before we can talk about development. We want peace, but you can’t have peace without justice ― justice and reconciliation.”

Saboun seems an improbable architect of CAR’s future. He had a string of failed business ventures during his more than 25 years in Canada. He lost two municipal elections. His marriage failed and, as a single father of three children, he survived on social assistance for a decade.

Over coffee at a Tim Hortons, he frets about the Montreal Canadiens playoff run and gushes over his children, aged 14, 17 and 18. And he laments that as a Muslim he can no longer walk the streets in the neighbourhood of Bangui, CAR’s capital, where he grew up.

How it got to this point is a sad and complicated story of a sad and complicated country.

In March 2013, the Seleka-backed leader Michel Djotodia seized power, ending the 10-year reign of Christian president François Bozizé. At Djotodia’s side, as presidential counsellor, was Abakar Sabone, Moustapha Saboun’s brother, who had long been involved in rebel movements.

Moustapha Saboun had been acting as Seleka’s “de facto secretary general” for years before the movement seized power, said friend Augustin Mangaphi.

“We were in contact with all the elements over there. It was here with me in Sherbrooke. It was we who co-ordinated all the political movements, but the military decisions were made on the ground,” Mangaphi said.

Last year, Saboun received a call from Djotodia asking him to serve as director general of CAR’s telecommunications agency — a key post in a country where cellphones and text messages are a vital means of communication.

“When Seleka took power, the president called me and said, ‘Voila, it’s time to come and help us,’” Saboun said. “I thought it was a good opportunity. I had put in place the regulations for the movement, the internal rules, worked on how to hold elections and how to put in place a political party to go (into power) through the big door.”

He stresses that his contribution to Seleka is strictly political: “In military affairs, I’m useless. I don’t know anything. It’s not my thing ― that has to be clear.”

Within six months of taking power, Seleka’s corrupt regime wreaked havoc. Djotodia quickly lost control of the militia, whose members terrorized the population, giving rise to the vigilante anti-balaka squads, whose members were mostly drawn from CAR’s majority Christian population.

Djotodia ordered the militia disbanded in September 2013, but was ignored. By December, there was chaos. In just two days, 1,000 people were killed in clashes between the Seleka and anti-balaka. Djotodia, ceding to international pressure, gave up the presidency in January and fled to Benin.

“It was a good thing that he left,” Saboun said. “But the manner in which he left was not good. It should have been negotiated smoothly and all those people armed to the teeth should have been integrated into the local and national police forces and into the army.”

Militias on both sides ran wild, committing atrocities, butchering people based only on the streets where they lived, what they wore and to what God they prayed.

The UN Security Council has approved a 12,000-strong peacekeeping mission, but troops are not expected to arrive until Sept. 15 and the African Union contingent and French forces now in the country are overwhelmed.

In Canada, the federal opposition is pressuring Ottawa to help with CAR’s current crisis and commit Canadian soldiers to the UN mission.

“Canada is notable for its absence,” Saboun said. “I strongly invite the government not to let Africa down because if there’s one country that Africans respect a lot, more than others in the world, it’s Canada.”

Saboun said the Seleka militias want peace, but security must come first. For the moment the rebels live in fear of reprisal attacks if they are disarmed, he explained.

“All the Seleka forces are in contained camps, but the anti-balaka aren’t being disarmed. They’re armed to the teeth as well. If the (Seleka) weapons are handed over they will be massacred,” Saboun said.

Canada gave Saboun many things, but the most important is the optimism and appreciation for things such as human rights and rule of law that he has taken back to his native country.

The son of rough diamond traders, Saboun arrived in Montreal in the 1980s to study for his MBA. He fell in love with a woman from Quebec and eventually settled in Sherbrooke, 150 kilometres east of Montreal. But the marriage ended.

“She left to marry someone in Morocco. I stayed with my three children ― the youngest was one year old,” he said. “For nine years, I was alone with my three children.”

He founded a development organization in 2002 that hoped to ship used clothing and medical equipment to Africa. He sent two containers’ worth of goods, but the profits were pilfered and the company failed.

In 2005, he had an idea for a business with a Quebec City diamond cutter. Saboun and Guy Robitaille planned to import Central African diamonds to be cut in Canada, and to eventually train technicians in CAR. The venture never got past the planning stages, said Robitaille.

That fall, Saboun ran for council in a village outside of Sherbrooke. He sat for a time on the board of the federal Liberal party riding association in Sherbrooke and, in 2009, ran for mayor.

He never expected to win — he got 882 of the 50,000 votes cast on an extravagant promise to bring a high-speed train connecting Montreal and Sherbrooke in 25 minutes. He wanted to send a message of hope to fellow immigrants, said friend François Munyabagisha.

“When people see me they will know that we are there and we can also participate in political life in this country. That’s very important,” Saboun told him.

Though Saboun and his brother were involved in the creation of Seleka, their views have diverged. Abakar Sabone caused a storm when he raised the prospect of dividing CAR into a Muslim east and a Christian west and he was dismissed from Djotodia’s staff.

“Among the Seleka, you have very different views and he was trying to push for the partition of the country, which no one in the international community would accept,” International Crisis Group analyst Thibaud Lesueur said in an interview.

Saboun said his brother’s proposition was motivated by anger and frustration and said he has recanted.

The interim government under the leadership of President Catherine Samba-Panza asked both sides to select political leaders to work toward reconciliation.

But the Seleka’s meeting ended with the appointment of leaders for military and police forces, as well as a political structure, raising fears of deepening sectarian fighting.

Saboun knows it’s an uphill battle and a tough diplomatic dance.

“A dialogue? We’re trying. But if we push too hard they say you’re with the government, they’ve bought you off,” Saboun said. “At the same time if we defend the Seleka forces they say we’re extremists. We’re in the middle and we’re playing a very delicate role.

“But that’s the price to pay because we don’t have a choice.”

Allan Woods reported from Sherbrooke and Michelle Shephard from Toronto and Bangui. Follow on Twitter @WoodsAllan and @shephardm.

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